A New Chapter
by SPS-kun
Summary: Mitarai thought only Japan was a magnet for demons and psychics. Upon going to Germany as an exchange student, he finds he is quite mistaken. Chapter 2 Up!
1. Prologue

A New Chapter

**A New Chapter**

A Yu Yu Hakusho fanfiction by Sir Psycho Sexy

A/N: Muti-chaptered fic ahoy. This was inspired by Mitarai's fate-blurb in the manga: he becomes an exchange student in high school and later joins the Peace Corps.

I fully believe that the reason Mitarai was bullied so much is because he is only half-Japanese. (Just my fanon, though.) I decided to make him half-German because it would confer an extra amount of angst upon watching Chapter Black, as well as my own personal interest in German culture. (I learned German for Papa Goethe and Rammstein, not Hitler, before you say anything, because in a lot of people's minds, interest in GermanyGodwin's.)

I hope you enjoy this fic! (There are going to be plenty of OC's ahoy, given the fic takes place outside of Japan, and I hope that they are nowhere near Sue/Stu's.)

-SPS

* * *

**Prologue: The Call**

Mitarai Kiyoshi had been working diligently over the past year at Meioh High in order to qualify for the school's study abroad programs. Not only did he work on the homework that was given to him, but he spent time writing and re-writing his entry essays. The Meioh programs, as were to be expected of a top-notch private school, were very selective; however, Mitarai figured he had an advantage over the other students who were going for the Germany program: he had known German since he first learned to talk, thanks to his mother.

As he endured working his way up to the top, the ordeal with Sensui still nagged at his mind. He was amazed that he had overcome such an adverse situation with nothing but the power of his own will; after he met Yusuke and friends, he had grown the intestinal fortitude needed to do what was right. He was still writing letters back and forth with Kuwabara, and he described to him what he was going through, and Kuwabara respected him, as he himself was working hard to get through Gai Tech High School and make something of himself after his junior-high days as a punk. They compared notes often in their letters, and often had a good laugh or two at each other's expense- like the times Kuwabara would arbitrarily slip up on doing trigonometry (the difference between sine and cosine bugged the hell out of him), and the times Mitarai would goof up in English class by speaking an equivalent sentence in German, much to the chagrin of his classmates, who, oddly, despite this behavior, treated Mitarai comparatively well compared to his junior-high classmates.

Maybe, Mitarai thought, it was because some of them were trying to learn German as a third language in order to improve their chances of getting into Tokyo University, and it was best to get on the good side of a native speaker. Or maybe it was because, for the first time in his life, his schoolmates were truly his peers.

He tried to shove all of these thoughts out of his head as he concentrated on his homework before homeroom started. Maybe, if he worked just a little harder, he'd get noticed…

Then Kimura-sensei, the homeroom teacher, walked in, and called attention to the chaotic class. They did the standard bowing and roll call, and then she told Mitarai, along with his classmate Nagano Ikuko, one of the girls who he tutored in German (and she tutored him in English in return) that the principal wanted to see him in his office.

A few boys at the back of the class snickered, but the others figured that, if they knew Mitarai and/or Nagano, they were getting called to the principal for a _good_ thing. Mitarai heard the boys snickering at him, felt his stomach drop to his knees, took a deep breath and reminded himself of his experiences of Yusuke and Kuwabara, and left class confidently to see the principal, marching after Ikuko.

Principal Higashi welcomed Kiyoshi and Ikuko warmly into his office. Even though Mitarai felt his heart pound and his palms get sweaty, he went in and sat down.

However, Ikuko was too ecstatic to see her boyfriend from Class 1-C, Yamada Renji, n the office with her.

"You two!" yelled the principal. "Sit down already! Your public display of affection is quite unnecessary!"

Renji and Ikuko stopped dead in their tracks, bowed, and sat down. "Yes, sir."

"Now…where were we? Ah, yes. The three of you have been chosen, out of all of Meioh High School's first-year students, to spend your second year of high school abroad. Your foreign-language scores are good enough to qualify, and your essays were top-notch."

Mitarai felt a wave of relief that bordered on joy.

"Nagano-kun, Yamada-kun," the principal continued, "you two have been selected to study at the Washington Irving Academy in New York City. I hope you realize that this program is very competitive, as Washington Irving only takes a certain number of foreign exchange students per year, and is also one of the top high schools in the United States."

Renji and Ikuko nodded curtly.

"And Mitarai-kun…I have managed to get you a spot in the program at the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe-Gymnasium in Berlin. This is a very rare honor for a Meioh student, as few students ever achieve fluency in German; the last student I sent there was four years ago. Plus I thought your background would be most appropriate. Also, your essay was very heartfelt and well-written."

Mitarai nodded. "I will do my best in Germany."

"So, congratulations, everyone," Principal Higashi continued. "Please remember that you will be representatives of Meioh and Japan as a whole, and act accordingly."

They got up and bowed, and then Kiyoshi, Ikuko, and Renji went back to their respective classrooms.

When Mitarai came home from school, he did not hesitate to tell his mother the news.

His mother was busy chopping up carrots and potatoes to put into curry rice, but was still listening intently. "I knew you could do it. I'm going to have to call your Uncle Till to make some arrangements to stay with him and his family."

She stopped chopping the vegetables and stooped to give her son a hug. Kiyoshi was a little embarrassed, but he felt proud of himself nonetheless.

He went up to his room to study in order to keep his grades up between now and the time he'd be at Goethe-Gymnasium, hoping that his mother would understand and bring some curry rice up to his room.

END PROLOGUE


	2. Family and a Strange Yet Familiar Girl

A New Chapter

**A New Chapter**

**Chapter 1: Family and a Strange yet Familiar Girl**

A YYH Fanfiction by Sir Psycho Sexy

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"_Do not unfasten your seatbelts until the aircraft has some to a full and compete stop."_

Mitarai opened his eyes. He didn't believe that he had slept for most of the flight from Tokyo to Berlin. His head ached, he still felt the effects of jet lag, and had only awoken because of the stewardess repeating her English sentence in German.

When the plane finally stopped, he stumbled to get off and find his baggage at the baggage claim. Of course, he found he had to wait half an hour for his bags to go around, and, in the interim, he wondered how Kuwabara was doing, how Kurama would feel about him not only getting into his alma mater but being involved in one of its prestigious study abroad programs, and what exactly his German relatives would look like at present, since Kiyoshi hadn't seen them since he was about four years old (his parents didn't have the money to go to Germany that often, and this flight had been paid for by Meioh), and he only had Christmas photographs to go on.

He looked around and found his large blue suitcase being poured onto the baggage claim track. He picked it up, and, to his chagrin, found a somewhat familiar-looking middle-aged man waving at him, with an unfamiliar woman holding a large placard with "KIYOSHI" written on it in red Magic Marker. Under the Roman script was an attempt to write his name in hiragana. It wasn't perfect, but it was passable, as if they had looked it up in a kana dictionary just for the occasion.

He looked at the man again, and realized that, since the last Christmas photo, he had only grown a few more gray hairs.

"Uncle Till?" he questioned in German.

"It's you! How's my nephew?" Till leaned in and gave him a big hug, and then kissed him on both cheeks in greeting.

"Umm…good." Mitarai didn't want to tell his uncle that this German-style greeting made him uncomfortable, being used to living in Japan, nor did he want to tell his uncle about Sensui, for chance that he would get _very_ angry at him for following a psychotic genocidal maniac. For now, he endured his uncle's greeting.

Till broke the hug, and then put his arm around the strange woman, who dropped the placard onto the floor. "I'd like you to meet my new fiancée, Sandra Meyer. Her daughter is going to Japan to study in your place."

"I see." Mitarai didn't know his uncle was about to get remarried. He didn't even say anything to his mother, or put any notes in the Christmas photos. "When did you meet?"

"A month and a half ago", replied Sandra. "He just whisked me off of my feet at a nightclub one night, and, well…"- she flashed her engagement ring- "here we are!"

Till was tired of hearing his fiancée's rambling. "Honey…let's go home. Kiyoshi, there's going to be a room upstairs for you. Don't worry, we took out all of Liese's girly things."

Sandra and Mitarai nodded, left the airport, and the three of them got into Till's car.

Later that evening, a suggestion was made to take Mitarai out to the local Japanese restaurant.

"Oh, you'll love it!" cooed Sandra. "They have the best tempura there…"

Mitarai didn't really want to go to a Japanese place in another country; he'd already had the stuff that was actually from Japan. It would seem too surreal, but Mitarai couldn't say no to an offer of hospitality. "I'll go."

"Good", said his uncle. He wandered over to the stairs and yelled, "Ulrike! Get down here!"

To which came the reply: "Dad, I'm trying to study. My _Abitur_ (1) isn't going to grant itself, you know."

"Oh, just be agreeable for once! It's for Kiyoshi's sake. Besides, we're going out for sushi."

Upon hearing the word "sushi", Ulrike dropped everything, threw on a pair of shoes, and ran down the stairs, lighting a cigarette.

"No smoking, please!" chimed Sandra.

"Geez…you're not my mom. You're never going to _be_ my mom. Besides, it helps me relax." With that she defiantly took a puff.

"Sandra…humor her, okay? She's almost old enough to go to university. Besides, she's still doing research…"

"Of course, dear!" Sandra smiled. "I wasn't thinking is all."

"Good." Till grabbed his coat and opened the door for his fiancée and his daughter; Mitarai followed them. They walked about three blocks to a place called "Mikado" (what was with the stupid title, Mitarai thought to himself, but reminded himself that most Germans didn't speak any Japanese), and then sat down at a table.

Even more surreal than having a Japanese restaurant in Berlin was the fact that this particular eating establishment was noticeably staffed by Turkish migrant workers; somehow Mitarai expected actual Japanese people, but then reminded himself that few Japanese would ever immigrate to Germany, and would just use the visit there to take pictures of the remains of the Berlin Wall or somesuch. The family took their orders, and the hubbub around the restaurant in Turkish between the waiters and the sushi chef reminded Mitarai that he was no longer in Japan.

He watched his uncle, his cousin, and his soon-to-be step-aunt happily devour their sushi. Curious to how it would actually taste, Mitarai took a piece of his tempura roll and plopped it into his mouth. It wasn't the best sushi he had ever had- that honor would be when he went on his first-year Meioh class trip to Osaka- but it was, surprisingly, edible. He slowly finished his meal, and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a stunningly familiar girl outside of the restaurant.

_Yukina…_?

_It couldn't be_, he reassured himself. _What would Yukina be doing in Berlin, of all places_?

He was curious as to why Yukina, or, at least some other woman who looked like her, was in Germany.

"Excuse me," he announced to the table. "I…I have to go to the bathroom for a bit."

"Don't take long!" yelled Sandra before she put another piece of inari-zushi into her mouth.

In the moment when the rest of the family was looking away, Mitarai went out the back door of the restaurant (which, incidentally, was next to the bathrooms), and decided to have a closer look at the woman.

She definitely was not Yukina, since she was taller and more refined-looking, with her hair put up higher than Yukina's. Her eyes were the usual Koorime blue instead of red, and Mitarai could hear her clogs going _clip-clop _against the pavement in the parking lot. She was definitely the same species as Yukina, and she stuck out like a sore thumb in Berlin, wearing a kimono, obi, and clogs.

But what was she doing there…?

Mitarai snuck up on her until he was not ten feet from where she stood, and started speaking to her in Japanese, since he assumed she didn't know German. "Excuse me…"

The Koorime turned around and glared it him icily. "You do not have permission to talk to me. You are a man. You will undoubtedly do horrible things to me, like all the men here have done. So be quiet and leave me alone."

"I'm sorry…" Mitarai bowed his head in submission. "I won't hurt you. I just want to know your name is all."

"Hmmph!" She stuck her nose up in the air. "Very well then. I am Shirahime; and that is ALL you are going to know about me. Good-bye."

Mitarai wanted to tell her to wait, but he already heard the sound of her clogs growing more distant.

He turned around and went back into the restaurant.

END CHAPTER 1

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(1) An _Abitur_ is the diploma received upon graduating from a _Gymnasium_ (German college-prep high school). It is roughly equivalent in US terms to an Associate degree, since, in Germany, _Gymnasium _coursework goes on to the 13th grade.


	3. The First Day of School

A New Chapter

**A New Chapter**

**  
Chapter 2: The First Day of School**

A Yu Yu Hakusho fanfiction by Sir Psycho Sexy

A/N: I objectively want to know if this fanfiction idea sucks so far, and also if any of my OC's seem Stuish/Sueish in any regard. Also, sorry for keeping you all waiting. I had other plotbunnies, and also tons of work to do for school.

* * *

Ulrike took some time out of her busy schedule the evening after they had gone for sushi to talk to her cousin. Yes, her thesis needed polishing, and there was leftover Japanese homework from her college seminar class she took on Friday afternoons, but, as of late, she had been sensing and seeing something very strange. It sent shivers up her spine, and, whenever she felt the shivers, there appeared somewhere around the vicinity of the house a tall woman with blue hair and eyes, dressed in a kimono and obi. She did not recognize her, but the pain Ulrike saw in her eyes (whenever she was close enough or her eyes to be seen) behind her cold exterior was too much for her to bear.

_A ghost...?_

Maybe. But why was the ghost dressed in traditional Japanese clothing...?

Ulrike knocked on Kiyoshi's bedroom door. "I need to talk to you."

"About what?" He opened the door.

"I was wondering...have you seen a tall woman with blue hair dressed in traditional Japanese clothes?"

"You...you saw her too?"

"Yeah. Do you know what or who she is, and what she's doing around here?"

"I...I saw her for the first time when we were having sushi."

"And?" Ulrike lighted a cigarette and daintily took a puff.

"I don't know what she's doing here in Germany either. She's a Koorime- an ice maiden- and I thought they were limited to Japan if they were to come to the human world...but..." Kiyoshi grew flustered trying to explain Shirahime's presence to his cousin.

"Interesting." She took another drag off of her cigarette and pushed her hair back from her face. "Next thing you know, you'll be telling me Enma-daioh is real...and that he has a son! Ha!" She started laughing between her teeth and slapping her knees while holding the cigarette in between her teeth. "I don't know about you sometimes..."

As she slammed the door, Mitarai muttered under his breath, "...But he does..."

Ulrike went back to her room and looked through her Japanese mythology texts under "snow woman". And, lo and behold, there was an illustration of a woman who looked very similar to the blue-haired one she had seen.

Her cousin was right.

Ulrike's jaw dropped as she tried to catch and put out the cigarette.

The next morning was the first day of classes. Mitarai went through his normal morning routine, with a few changes because of where he currently was. His breakfast of fish and rice had been replaced by coffee, sausage, and toast; and he had to remind himself not to wear his Meioh uniform, since schools in Gemany did not require uniforms, and, were he to wear it, he would most certainly be bullied like he was in junior high.

So he decided to put on the grey flannel suit that his mother had bought for him he week before he had left Mushiyori. He was proud because he had ironed it himself the night before; nothing was out of place. He made the final tug of his tie, grabbed his bag, and rushed downstairs to walk the five blocks to school; however, Ulrike, being an early riser, had already left the house.

He still worried how his classmates would like him. There was a part of his mind that gnawed away at him, expecting to be bullied and tormented yet again, this time for being the foreign kid, the "kid from Japan" as opposed to "the half who looked like a girl". But then there was another part of his mind that was fending off the specter of bullying, telling him that it would be okay, if he kept himself together.

Upon entering the Goethe-Gymnasium, he looked down dark hallways to find his classroom: 11-2. Eleventh year, second class. The numbering system for grades and classes was so _different_ from Japan, he thought nervously. He looked in the window of the classroom door, and saw teenagers talking in little cliquish groups.

He didn't know if he even belonged there. Everyone seemed so happy without him.

He slowly opened the door, and sheepishly looked for an empty seat. As he looked around, a lanky ginger-haired girl glared at him.

"Like_ hell_ you're sitting next to me, pipsqueak," she spat.

As she got up, Mitarai felt a knot form in his stomach. "Um...I'm sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't cut it! You have no right to tread in here! Who do you think you are?"

"This...this is my classroom. I'm the exchange student from Japan...Mi...erm, I mean, Kiyoshi Mitarai." He had to catch himself from saying his name in Japanese name order.

"...You're still a miserable pipsqueak. You don't deserve to live." She turned up her nose at him as she loudly pulled her chair away from her desk and plopped down into it. "Besides, you've probably got nothing on Liese."

A boy in the seat in front of her turned towards Kiyoshi. "Don't mind Nina. She's just really irritable because she's as flat as an ironing board!"

"Yeah", chimed in another boy. "Plus she's probably a total lezzie for Liese!" He made a kissy-face at her. "Oh...does Nina miss her girlfriend in Japan?"

"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS!!" Nina yelled at the top of her lungs as she stamped her foot down onto her desk. "I am not gay, and I am definitely _not_ flat!" She kept on muttering to herself. "Boys...so stupid...some day I'm going to kill every last one of them..."

By this point in time, Mitarai was hiding under one of the classroom's empty desks, cowering. He was scared of Nina; he was scared that she was going to start kicking him around like a soccer ball, he was scared she was going to beat him up, and, most of all, he was doubly scared of her because she happened to be a _girl _and capable of doing these things to him.

In a moment of weakness, he looked up at Nina and made eye contact with her.

She glared back and kicked him in the face. "Stupid pipsqueak...you're not even worthy of this school..."

As Kiyoshi rubbed the newly bruised part of his face, he got up from under the desk and took his seat.

The boy next to him whispered, "I think Nina likes you."

Mitarai's stomach began to sink again. "Huh?"

"She beats up all the boys she likes. She may say you're a worthless piece of crap, but...every guy she's had an interest in, she's beat the snot out of. Or so I've heard."

Mitarai rubbed his face again. "That...that's weird."

"Heh. Girls _are _weird. It's part of life."

As the homeroom teacher walked in, everyone took their seat. He took attendance, and then introduced Mitarai to the class. He swore he could hear Nina snickering at him, belittling him in her mind, waiting for a chance to strike against him.

As he sat down, first period began. It was something even _worse_ than being beat up by a girl: Latin. He cursed himself for not knowing any Latin whatsoever, and struggled to keep up with the rest of the class, guessing as to the grammar based on the same cases in German.

"Herr Mitarai...I will not put up with this nonsense! You should know this!" Herr Zils, the Latin and homeroom teacher, waved his arms furiously at Mitarai.

Kiyoshi's head sank.

Today had to be the worst day of his life, and, considering his life, that was saying something.

-END CHAPTER 2


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